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Pizza is one of the most popular convenience foods ever invented. Whether you are up late cramming for an exam, working long hours at the office, or celebrating a win with your soccer team, pizza is the standard go-to meal. To wit, Americans eat a lot of it. Most Americans likely enjoy pizza from a restaurant, but frozen pizza is also popular, and some even make homemade pizza. That's definitely a lot of slices of za.
One of the great things about pizza is there are bound to be leftovers to chow down on in the morning, or for dinner the next day. But how can you tell if your leftover pizza is safe to eat, or if that stack of frozen pizzas buried deep in the freezer is still good to eat?
Generally speaking, that pizza you ordered from Papa John's or Dominos will be good to eat for up to five days if you keep it in the refrigerator, while frozen pizzas that are properly stored in the freezer can be safely cooked and eaten up to six months past their "best by date."But if you have any reservations about whether or not your pizza is still good to eat, there's a quick way to determine if you should be eating it.
Bad pizza is generally visibly noticeable
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If you are unsure about whether or not it is safe to eat your leftover pizza, steal a page from Obi Wan and Luke Skywalker and let the force and your senses guide you. The quickest way to tell if your pizza is no longer edible is to rely on your sight and simply look at it. There are some tell-tale signs that you simply can't ignore.
As pizza starts to near the end of its life, it begins to look dry and unappealing. It may even start to smell and have visible mold. In both cases, this leftover pizza should not come near your pie hole. Additionally, you want to look for freezer burn and slimy toppings, both signs that your pizza needs to go into the trash bin. However, as long as you don't allow your leftover pizza to sit out more than two hours, and you store it properly in the fridge or the freezer, you should be able to eat it for a future meal.
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